Is crappy customer service and hiring incompetent "monkeys" the norm now??

[TXCountryBoy]

I know where your are coming from. I own my own business and do this day I still answer my own calls. I will do that for as long as I live. I don't want to treat someone like a number.

[socal2009]

I wonder, how some morons get hired at all. English-zero. Common sense-zero. Today my wife was shoping, she was paying with gift card ($200 value), she paid about $45, balance left $155. Cashier said "we have to keep your gift card"., "But it has 155 balance!!! left!!!". "Yes. We are keeping card" All this with her terrible philipines accent.
My wife spend 15min paying, and only store manager resolved this issue-explained cashier what is gift card and how it works.
That happened at Loehmann's.

[no kudzu]

Not too long ago I actually had a sales clerk ask me for identification when I paid in cash!!!Can you believe that. Where is the training, the common sense? I was livid and reported her to management who didn't seem to even care. These are a few of the things I have changed lately about how I do business

1) keep all receipts for at least a year. All tags, etc because if a garment falls apart only 2 washings in I want my money back.
2) I still get cancelled checks from my bank. Ever try to get a cancelled check more than 3 or 4 months old? impossible.
3) I do not accept "You get 15% off today's purchase if you open an account with us". These always end up with some kind of snafu. I think I save more money in the long run by paying with credit card for proof and then I can refuse to pay the credit card people if I have a problem with the merchandise.
4)I keep a list of all local business reporters in my area and I am prepared to call in the media if I feel I have been truly wronged. Ever notice how the problem gets taken care of real soon if you say you will notify the consumer reporter at the local TV station?

5) I've set up my finances so that every night I pay the bills that come in that day's mail. If i try to put aside bill paying for one special time, I inevitably get caught up in different cycles and sometimes have to pay late fees when I am only hours late. I know I;'m losing interest on possible savings but the late fees are ridicilous and it is hard to know exactly when a bill is late.
6) I have a file for each business I do business with and whenever I talk to a representative I make a note, get the name and employee number or location or someway to make them responsible if I have a problem.
7) I never assume the person I just talked to will handle the problem the way she/he said it would happen. Now I assume nobody will get it right the first time and I try to keep good notes so I can compare what I have written with what they have written in their notes.
8) Sometimes if I've encountered a truly frustrating situation, I immediately ask to speak to "someone with authority or your supervisor" instead of having to tell my story to 8 different people until I get to somebody who can help me.
9) I often have trouble understanding accents of people, even "Americans" They say their speil so often during the day,m they end up speaking too sloppy and too fast so I always ask them to speak slowly and pronounce each sylable. Today I tried to call AAA and was shocked when the rep asked me if I was on vacation. I finally found out she was asking me if I was in a safe location but it sure did sound like vacation to me.
I think it is all a big conspiracy to drive us all nuts and I'm half way there.

[gardener34]

A reminder: customer services are not an added"value" for any company. It costs them money to have a customer service department. It is not making them any money at all. So you can fully expect them to spend as little of their budget as possible on it.
Once they get your money - they want you to go away. Sad but true.

[car54]

Sometimes incompetence is good for a laugh.

I'm in Virginia and they opened a new BBQ joint that I thought I'd try.

So I ask the guy behind the counter: "Is this North Carolina BBQ?"

Guy behind counter: "No sir, we make it right here."

[haggardhouseelf]

I've noticed a difference in customer service depending on where we live. While living in larger cities, it was awful. AWFUL. But now we live in a small to mid-size town, and we haven't had any issues with customer service. Oh... you get the flaky college kid once in awhile, but at least they speak English and get it right eventually. Our utility company here that we use actually has local humans - and ones that seem educated, at that, wow! - answering the phones. And for our cable company, I usually just go up the street to deal with them face-to-face rather than calling the 800 number. You can sometimes score free candy that way, to boot!

I think it helps us, too, that my husband works for one of the big wireless companies that hire the monkeys to answer their phones. We bypass the monkeys when it comes to our mobile devices, thank goodness.

But like I said, in the larger cities we've lived... oh my... it was horrible. My husband has said he never wants to live in a large city again. Things are just awful. More people = more problems and more stress. And in our experience, the higher wages you might earn don't really amount to much when you factor in the higher cost of living and higher amount of stress you have to deal with (and traffic, and crime...)... but now I've gone off topic...

OP - I hope you feel better.

[antiquesmountainapache]

Identification required for cash? I must tell everyone about this.